Ireland Guide
Galway and Mayo
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The Aran Islands
In the late nineteenth century, the Arans became a living museum for anthropologists, antiquarians and linguists, seeking out the unbroken heritage of Gaelic language, beliefs and customs here, which in turn provided fuel for the Gaelic Revival and the Nationalist movement. Written and spoken Irish was a particular focus of interest, as even by this time the islands were one of the few areas of the country where the native language was in daily use. Patrick Pearse came specifically to learn Irish on Inishmaan, which was also visited by writers Yeats, Lady Gregory and, most notably, J.M. Synge – George Russell later joked that Synge's knack was to discover that if you translated Irish literally into English, you achieved poetry.
The Arans themselves have nurtured several excellent writers. Liam O'Flaherty (1896–1984) of Inishmore wrote many highly regarded short stories and novels, notably The Informer (1925), a salty tale of an ex-IRA man who betrays an associate to the police and is hunted down by his former colleagues. Meanwhile poet Máirtín Ó'Direáin (1910–88), also from Inishmore, explored themes of alienation and the anonymity of city life in the Irish language.
In 1934, the documentary-maker Robert Flaherty released his classic Man of Aran, in which he sought to record the islands' vanishing way of life, though some of it had already disappeared – he wasn't averse to re-creating scenes that were no longer witnessed. A few of the traditions captured in the film still exist – you'll still see people collecting seaweed for fertilizer, building dry-stone walls and fishing from currachs (traditional pointed skiffs), though these are no longer covered with animal skins.